KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry has deployed more healthcare personnel to Sabah in the on-going efforts to contain the Covid-19 outbreak in the state.
Its director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry had mobilised seven nurses from the Kelantan Health Department to the Tawau Hospital in Sabah yesterday.
The reinforcement team from Kelantan to Sabah was made up of two nurses each from Gua Musang Hospital and Tanah Merah Hospital as well as one nurse each from the Raja Perempuan Zainab II Hospital, Tengku Anis Hospital and Sultan Ismail Petra Hospital.
"All the frontliners are prepared to carry out their duties on the ground in the effort to curb the spread of the pandemic.
"On behalf of the Malaysian people, we thanked our national "wira" (heroes) and "wirawati" (heroines)," said Dr Noor Hisham in a Facebook posting today.
In a separate social media posting yesterday, Dr Noor Hisham said 475 members from various categories and services schemes had been deployed to Tawau, Lahad Datu and Kota Kinabalu.
The teams, he added, were mobilised to Sabah in the early stages when the state started to witness an increase in the number of confirmed cases.
"Until Oct 8, 249 personnel from the Medical Division and 48 from the Public Health Division have been deployed to the state.
"Also, 130 personnel from the Medical Division as well as 48 from the Public Health Division from other states had flown to the state."
Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry would continue to conduct human resource requirement evaluation for Sabah.
"At the same time, the welfare of all healthcare and medical personnel will be prioritised to ensure that the 'main asset' of the ministry can carry out their duties accordingly," he said.
The ministry also called on more healthcare and medical volunteers to come forward in the battle against the third wave of the pandemic.